Movie Review- Stalingrad (1993)
Movie Review – Stalingrad (1993)
Introduction
Stalingrad is a 150-minute war drama movie that was directed by Joseph Vilsmaier and released on 21st January 1993 in Germany. Stalingrad was produced by Hanno Huth and Gunter Rohrbach and written by Jurgen Buscher and Johannes Heide. Starring in the movie is Thomas Kretschmann, Dominique Horwitz, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph, Dana Vavrove, Martin Benrath and Sylvester Groth .
The movie has its background in the actual battle of Stalingrad, a fight that took place in Russia for two years claiming millions of lives of civilians and soldiers. The invaders, Hitler’s army tries to destroy Stalingrad but the Russian army defeated them. Having taken place in 1942, the battle happened during the early stages on the World War II. The battle was a turning point in the World War II because that was the first battle that Germany had actually lost during this period. Germany had been at the top of the roll since the beginning of World War II and its defeat showed its enemies that Germany was not invincible . The German army surrendered despite Hitler’s command that they fight until the last man.
This battle was a turning point of World War II in terms of how the allies viewed Germany after the defeat and how they responded to this. During the war at Stalingrad, the Russians were producing tanks at a higher rate than Germany. They actually produced the best tank during the World War II, T34. Germany did not experience any significant victory in the World War II after Stalingrad. Germany lost about 23% of its army in the war. It was obviously a turning point both psychologically and militarily. It was also the first war that the Allies won, an event that boosted their confidence .
The plot gives a vivid picture of how World War II was and the actual atrocities that were committed. For example, a female Russian soldier, Irina, who had been captured by the British army and repeatedly abused sexually, agrees to lead them to safety only to get killed by the Soviets . However, I found it unrealistic for any human being to let go of such an incident and decide to help the enemy with no valid reason.
Opinion
The movie was really graphic, and I did not enjoy watching it. The movie gave me the feeling of how it was like to be there, and not the normal thrilling effect of a movie. I also think that the battle scenes were few. They only showed one major battle scene which lasted about 15 minutes and still didn’t meet the criteria of large scale war scenes. However, it brought out a clear picture of how World War 2 was like. It was disturbing to watch the aftermath of the war, for example, the body of that soldier whose body was shredded into half. It portrayed how the battle in Stalingrad was the bloodiest in all of modern history.
The true nature of World War II has been brought out, and the selfishness of some of the troop leaders is seen in the way they feast and dwell in luxury while their troops in the battle field almost starve and freeze to death.
Conclusion
Hitler had obviously under estimated Russia’s power and the magnitude of support behind it. He ended up wasting his army. Germany’s defeat was among the first stages of ending World War II.
Reference
Holden, S. (1995). Movies. New York Times .
